20120903

aloha, keikis! what have you been up to since i've been away? i have been really off, off-island...on and off, anyway. have any of you been on holiday lately? let me know!

the first big trip of the year was this spring, and the first stop was honolulu. i love honolulu, but i never really stop there anymore, except for the layover to los angeles. this time, i did stop. for a day. (i know. but i'm working up to it, by the end of the decade, i may even spend a week.)

and yes, the hotel lives up to its name. it has all the quirks one would expect from a modern boutique hotel: low lighting in public areas, chillout-y music on the p.a., sexy scuffy wood floors and comfy soft furnishings in hideaway places. but there are little touches of that still remind you that yes, you are on an island, like the broken surfboards behind the front desk, or um, yeah, that ocean view. or ukuleles and saris in every room.

which is admittedly twee but sort of love it all the same. i didn't really have time to explore, though, as i was having a late-ish dinner with reid from ono kine grindz. we kept it simple, and went to the waikiki branch of the fried pork cutlet empire of tonkatsu ginza bairin. i don't really have a predilection towards tonkatsu, but i have to say, this place may spoil all other tonkatsu you may consume. i don't know why it's so good, aside from the fact that they use kurubota pork, or its american equivalent. the cutlets are crispy, not greasy, juicy, and tender all at once. i snarfed down my katsudon like, well, a pig, and i probably would've eaten reid's perfect-in-its-simplicity tonkatsu sandwich too, if i wasn't so full. and sleepy.

and so i went back to the modern, and promptly passed out. i didn't realize until sunrise that the window was open in my hotel room, and there was a beautiful ocean breeze wafting through the room. i blearily made my way to the window, pushed aside the shutters and pulled away the curtain to this view:

i know, riiight? really lovely. i think this view would energize most people into getting together some towels and swimsuits together to go for a swim, but come on, keikis, i live on a beach, and if i'm not going there on guam, i'm probably not going here. but it did wake me up enough to cuddle up on chaise lounge and read the morning paper on my ipad.

and eventually i made my way outta there, but i really could've stayed in the room all day....

DISCLAIMER: this is a personal journal with no desires to be anything but. it contains my opinion with occasional fact thrown in; recipes have been tested where noted, in an unairconditioned kitchen in the tropics. YMMV. for my sake and yours, consult a professional!